Superimposed embossed packing sheets

ABSTRACT

The disclosure of the present application relates to embossment between engraved rollers of a series or plurality of sheets of relatively heavypaper or similar matted fibrous materials to obtain varying patterns of rows of mound-like embossments which are arranged in successive areas, usually successive squares, longitudinally and then diagonally in respect to the main axis of the paper sheets. After embossment the sheets are passed through shorter or longer paths of travel before again being assembled so that their matching mounds and recesses will be offset in such a manner that they will no longer match. The disclosure further relates to the composite packing material and to a method and apparatus for making the same.

United States Patent Gerard [451 June 6, 1972 [54] SUPERIMPOSED EMBOSSED PACKING SHEETS [72] Inventor: George Gerard, Point Pleasant, NJ.

[73] Assignee: Jiffy Manufacturing Co., Hillside, NJ.

22 Filed: Sept. 1, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 68,745

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 676,573, Oct. 19, 1967,

abandoned.

[ 52] US. Cl ..'.l61/l36, 229/87 [51] Int. Cl. ..B32b 3/00, 1332b 7/00 [58] Field ofSearc ..161/130, 135, 136; 229/87 [56] I References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,955,833 4/1934 Romanoff.... ..161/136 2,177,490 10 1939 Kieffer ..161/136 2,179,057 11/1939 Schuetz ..161/130 2,284,663 6/1942 Kieffer... 16 1/135 2,848,132 8/1958 Davous .l61/l35 Primary ExaminerMorris Sussman Attorney-Arthur B. Calvin and Mark T. Basseches [57] ABSTRACT The disclosure of the present application relates to embossment between engraved rollers of a series or plurality of sheets of relatively heavypaper or similar matted fibrous materials to obtain varying patterns of rows of mound-like embossments which are arranged in successive areas, usually successive squares, longitudinally and then diagonally in respect to the main axis of the paper sheets. After embossmentthe sheets are passed through shorter or longer paths of travel before again being assembled so that their matching mounds and recesses will be offset in such a manner that they will no longer match.

- The disclosure further relates to the composite packing material and to a method and apparatus for making the same.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures mmemux' s m INVENTOR." GEORGE GERARD '.BY' 4 6 ATTORNIEY SUPERIMPOSED EMBOSSED PACKING SHEE'IS This application is a continuation of my application, Ser. No. 676,573, filed Oct. 19, 1967 entitled Superimposed Embossed Packing Sheets, now abandoned.

In the preferred embodiment, to achieve maximum thickness the elevations may be positioned so that they all will be superimposed one upon the other. However, shorter ofisets may be employed so that the peaks will partly rest on the sides of the elevations without nesting. So long as there is sufficient offset to avoid nesting, a relatively enhanced thickness will be achieved which enables the enhanced material to be used as wrapping or sheeting for relatively fragile objects such as books, furniture, crockery and the like.

The offset relatively coarse basically porous embossed sheets may be of lightly calendared or uncalendared kraft stock and have frictional faces so as to cling or lodge with or be in contact with mounds or other faces of the contacting sheets. The sheets are desirably only lightly calendared and are not compacted. They may vary from 0.003 to 0.010 inch in thickness.

The width of the mounds may range from one sixty-fourth to one-eighth inch, with a preference of one thirty-second to one-eighth inch, and these mounds are generally arranged in rows alternately extending longitudinally and diagonally in square or rectangular areas ranging from 2 to 6 inches in width and/or length.

Desirably there is no substantial break in the embossment at the meeting portions of the squares or rectangles but the embossed portions will closely fit into each other at such meeting portions.

The sheets may be assembled together by a light application of glue to the opposite elevated portions thereof and may be coated on the inside faces before assembly, the preferred glue being a flexible glue which will not affect the flexibility of the sheets.

However, the preferred procedure involves either assembling them with an added localized embossing or scoring to lock them together or by placing them in a flattened envelope or sleeve which will keep them assembled together when they are used for protection purposes as laid over tables, pianos or between articles of furniture in shipment, or formed into bags or receptacles or wrapped around crockery. Desirably the enclosures should be of smooth, highly calendared paper or of soft tissue paper so that there will be no tendency to scratch or mar the furniture finish that might occur with roughened face of the embossed superimposed paper sheets or the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF SUMMARY AND GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a novel laminated paper product or laminated fibrous product in which with relatively limited numbers of paper stock it is possible to obtain adequate packing material which will protect furniture, chairs, crockery, books and the like from damage or scuffing when applied thereto or wrapped therearound.

Another object is to provide an economical, high speed procedure for producing paper stock in which a plurality of sheets of paper may be quickly embossed and laminated without nesting and with assurance of maximum substantial volume achieved with limited stock.

Another object is to provide a paper or matted fibrous packing material which will achieve relatively large volume with limited weight per volume.

Another object is to provide an apparatus for fabricating the packing material of the present invention.

. Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

ln accomplishing the above objects, it has been found most satisfactory to feed a series of rolls of paper stock to an as sembly position, where closely matching embossed rollers having varying directed designs will emboss the same.

It has been found that to achieve a satisfactory result the embossment should consist of forming a series of closely adjacent conical mounds or recesses in the paper in areas which contact each other, with each area having the same size and shape of embossment extending in different directions. Although the areas may be arranged as a series of interlocking triangles, hexagons, rectangles or the like, it has been found most satisfactory to use rectangles or triangles.

In the simplest form of the invention, the rows of alternating mounds or recesses may extend longitudinally in one square and diagonally in the adjacent squares, or the alternating mounds or recesses may extend diagonally in one square and longitudinally or transversely in all of the adjacent squares;

The spacing of the rows and the spacing of the individual mounds and recesses from each other should be uniform throughout and may vary from one-eighth to one-fourth inch with the mounds themselves varyin'gin maximum diameter from one-sixteenth to one-eighth inch, although smaller mounds may be employed. Desirably, in the rows there is less of a valley or recess between the mounds than in the area between the rows. In the preferred construction each mound is surrounded by 4 recesses, while each recess is surrounded by 4 mounds.

Although the top and bottom of the mounds may be rounded off, their sides should be oblique or taken from a frusto-conical section.

After this embossing has been achieved on the relatively rough, coarse, matted, uncompressed and lightly calendared or uncalendared kraft paper stock, the sheets are then fed over guide rollers which will cause an offsettingof the sheets which have been embossed together so that they will no longer match or nest together at the next assembly position. Here the sheets are fed between light compression rollers which will apply a light pressure thereto, sufiicient to cause the mounds and recesses to connect together because of their inherent roughness and fiber disarray.

Although not necessary, the opposing mounds or projections might be lightly touched or covered with a glue devoid of organic solvents, such as a vegetable glue. Desirably, this coating is on a fused material with a minimum of solvent, so that there will be less tendency for vapors to form after the embossed paper sheets have been assembled together.

Generally, the superimposed sheets which have been offset in respect to the mounds and recesses are assembled so that there will be contact without nesting, which will separate the sheets by a distance varying between one-half to the full height of the mounds, and that is between one one hundred and twenty-eighth inch to as much as three thirty-seconds inch depending upon the size of the embossment utilized to prevent return to the nesting stage or to coincidence of the mounds and recesses, with lodgment of one set of mounds and recesses with the other. it is desirable to offset the squares and triangles at least one-half of their maximum width in respect to each adjacent superimposed sheet.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the sheets are held together in a thin calendared paper sleeve and in this condition they are used for packaging, wrapping and other purposes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically'described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. I, there is shown a series of supply rolls A, B, C, D and E of lightly calendared or uncalendared, relatively rough, coarse kraft paper of a thickness varying from 0.001 to 0.005 inch, but which may be up to 0.010 inch, which are fed together. Although 5 rolls are shown, it is apparent that a larger or smaller number may be used and it has been found that it is possible to handle from 2 to rolls at the same time.

The various rolls are fed in the direction F toward the embossing rolls G and H which have matching embossments and between which the paper sheets J are subjected to pressures between 1,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch and preferably 2,000 to 5,000 pounds per square inch.

As shown in FIG. 2, there will be alternating areas K and L of longitudinally and transversely directed rows of embossments and diagonally directed rows of mounds and recesses L. At the junction lines M the mounds and recesses will fit closely together so as not to make any break in the overall pattern with the only change in the direction of the rows thereof.

Desirably there is a plurality of mounds arranged in one tow, a plurality of recesses arranged in the next row and this arrangement continues throughout the area in the direction set forth.

. After this embossment takes place, the embossed sheets N will then be caused to pass over varying spaced idler rollers P before they are passed to a new assembly position Q between the light pressure rollers R. By passing over these rollers P each sheet N will be caused to travel a different distance between the rolls G and H and the rolls R and this arrangement may be'set so that each adjacentsheet will be offset by one of the squares shownin FIG. 2, with the diagonal arrangement L becoming superimposed with the straight arrangement K and with the mounds and recesses completely out of meshing or coinciding relation. I

Lesser spacings may be employed if desired, so that there will be a partial offsetting, so that there will be a tendency toward partial nesting to decrease the thickness of the sup'erimposed embossed sheets.

in the area between the offsetting rolls P and the light pressure rolls R a light covering of glue or flexible resin adhesive maybe applied to the inside faces of the sheets N.

The combined sheet S is indicated in small scale in FIG. I and in enlarged fragmentary section in FIG. 3 and it has a series of embossed offset sheets N, which may be enclosed in a calendared or smooth envelope T, formed of top and bottom sheets which will protect the furniture or other articles being packaged from scuffing due to the rough face of the embossed sheets N.

The sheets N from one side each have a series of mounds U and recesses V which are next to each other and arranged in rows extending longitudinally or diagonally. Instead of diagonally, they may also extend at varying angles of 30 to 60 or even other intermediate angular displacements.

Desirably, the sides W are of conical section with the ends rounded as indicated at X. These ends may contact each other as indicated at Y in FIG. 3, or they may be offset so that they throu the corrugating lprocess and which should be used on the si e which contacts t e furniture or book or other material to be protected.

If desired, the smooth sheets T may be held in position by applying lines of adhesive or glue thereto, which will attach themselvesto part of the mounds W in the corrugated sheets M. However, generally the entire assemblage as shown in FIG. 3 may be devoid of any glued or permanent attachment, with the adherence of the paper being sufficient.

According to the present invention the sheets may be as sembled with or without gluing andwith or without pinning together. Pinning involves impressing the sheets with sharp triangular points that cause the fibers of the paper laminations to become bonded to one another and this pinning operation is covered in a co-pending operation.

It is thus apparent that the applicant has provided a novel procedure for making laminated paper materials which will achieve maximum bulk with minimum weight, for protection of books, crockery, furniture and the like. The paper laminates, because of their rough surface, will lock with one another and also prevent side or lateral slippage. The coarse or rough embossed sheets may function effectively on packaging materials, while their surfaces are spaced from furniture by smooth sheets or by tissue paper.

It is further apparent that applicant has provided a novel apparatus for simultaneously embossing a multiplicity of webs sequentially along the length thereof with two or more distinct patterns and with means for automaticallyretuming the webs into contact with each other in such manner that the pattern of one sheet will engage wholly or partly against a disparate pattern formed in the adjacent sheets.

As many changes could be made in the above superimposed embossed packing sheets, and many widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described the invention and illustrated its use, what is claimed as new and is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A coherent, yieldable, multi-layer, embossed paper packing material for covering and protecting articles likely to be damaged or scuffed, such as furniture, books, crockery or the like, comprising a plurality of substantially identical, yieldable sheets, each provided with a multiplicity of adjacent lengthwise and widthwise offset discrete areas of embossed, three dimensional patterns defined by individual mounds and recesses of generally frusto-conic configuration, the patterns of mounds and recesses in adjacent discrete areas of each sheet being different from each other, said sheets in said packing being stacked with the patterned areas of each sheet being at least partially offset from the identically patterned areas of each contacting sheet, said mounds and recesses of adjacent sheets being compressed together into partial nesting configuration, whereby said mounds and recesses frictionally grip each other and resist separation of said sheets, said composite defining a high bulk, low weight multiple sheet packing material wherein the sheets are frictionally held together.

said mounds are rounded.

l k k 

1. A coherent, yieldable, multi-layer, embossed paper packing material for covering and protecting articles likely to be damaged or scuffed, such as furniture, books, crockery or the like, comprising a plurality of substantially identical, yieldable sheets, each provided with a multiplicity of adjacent lengthwise and widThwise offset discrete areas of embossed, three dimensional patterns defined by individual mounds and recesses of generally frusto-conic configuration, the patterns of mounds and recesses in adjacent discrete areas of each sheet being different from each other, said sheets in said packing being stacked with the patterned areas of each sheet being at least partially offset from the identically patterned areas of each contacting sheet, said mounds and recesses of adjacent sheets being compressed together into partial nesting configuration, whereby said mounds and recesses frictionally grip each other and resist separation of said sheets, said composite defining a high bulk, low weight multiple sheet packing material wherein the sheets are frictionally held together.
 2. The packing material of claim 1 wherein the apices of said mounds are rounded. 